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This stuff has gone beyond reason. Right now HSA has a building under construction that will dwarf the Pentagon in size complete with garden terraces and water fountains. Where are the Republican fiscal watchdogs when we need them??

This is a reason I would vote for Rand Paul in a heartbeat. He is one of the few who I believe would really go over Fed expenditures with a fine-tooth comb. Remember, he has returned about $60K of his office budget to the Treasury each year.

I believe he is a person of character and fiscal responsibility that would have the gumption to really do something about it.

I saw a report of an interview that Allen West said he would be "available" to run. I could see a strong ticket in Paul/West. With some of the strong people in Congress like Cruz, Lee, and others, maybe something could actually be done to change the tide?

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time.The highly classified program, code-named PRISM, has not been disclosed publicly beforehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/invest...y.html?hpid=z1

I don't know how highly classified the program was when it was reported in May 2006 by USA today about the mining of phone calls, one would have to be pretty foolish not to think they would further that plan. The bill passed with 98% approval of House and Senate Republicans.

After last week's revelations extensive National Security Agency surveillance of phone and internet communications, President Barack Obama made it a point to assure Americans that, not to worry, there is plenty of oversight of his administration's snooping programs. "We've got congressional oversight and judicial oversight," he said Friday, referring in part to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which was created in 1979 to oversee Department of Justice requests for surveillance warrants against foreign agents suspected of espionage or terrorism in the [COLOR=#11B000 !important]United States[/COLOR]. But the FISC has declined just 11 of the more than 33,900 surveillance requests made by the government in 33 years, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. That's a rate of .03 percent, which raises questions about just how much judicial oversight is actually being provided.

"The FISA system is broken," Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the [COLOR=#11B000 !important]Electronic[/COLOR] Privacy Information Center, told the Journal. "At the point that a FISA judge can compel the disclosure of millions of phone records of US citizens engaged in only domestic communications, unrelated to the collection of foreign intelligence...there is no longer meaningful judicial review."

The American people are relying on the truthfulness of what they are being told -- that the members of the FISC court will give strong judicial review to whatever reasons NSA provides them as to why they want to collect whatever information they want to obtain.

Problem is ... there is the Rosen situation. The DOJ lied in their application as to why they wanted to obtain Rosen's phone records etc. If the DOJ can outright lie about reasons to justify their snooping, so can the NSA.

That's interesting but why is this directed at the White house when it was started under Bush with approval of 98% of the Republican House and Senate. The Republicans were completely behind this thing seven years ago, shouldn't be entitled something completely different? Why not go after the 98% of the Republicans that voted in favor of negotiating our Constitution? Seems like politics as usual.

That's interesting but why is this directed at the White house when it was started under Bush with approval of 98% of the Republican House and Senate. The Republicans were completely behind this thing seven years ago, shouldn't be entitled something completely different? Why not go after the 98% of the Republicans that voted in favor of negotiating our Constitution? Seems like politics as usual.

Some Democrats were also behind this back then; and some were not. Both parties show themselves to be partisan in that respect. Dems who criticized Bush for these activities now are okee-dokee with Obama doing the same thing. In fact, Obama was one of those who said this stuff was a bad thing. So, you're right ... politics as usual. Obama has often referred to "leading from behind". On this issue, he seems to have stepped right out front?

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

​I don't use the PM feature, so just email me direct at the address shown above.

Some Democrats were also behind this back then; and some were not. Both parties show themselves to be partisan in that respect. Dems who criticized Bush for these activities now are okee-dokee with Obama doing the same thing. In fact, Obama was one of those who said this stuff was a bad thing. So, you're right ... politics as usual. Obama has often referred to "leading from behind". On this issue, he seems to have stepped right out front?

Your post is spot on. Gerry who do you think are most at fault in on this issue, the Republicans who came up with the plan, backed it with almost 98% approval then implemented their plan, or Obama who took their plan and led from the front? On this issue which party is most to blame for selling out the Constitution?

Your post is spot on. Gerry who do you think are most at fault in on this issue, the Republicans who came up with the plan, backed it with almost 98% approval then implemented their plan, or Obama who took their plan and led from the front? On this issue which party is most to blame for selling out the Constitution?

Both can share the blame equally....it's just like McCain Feingold which was supposed to be campaign finance reform, who does a better job of exploiting the system....in the case of the Patriot Act the R's may have put it into play, but right now the D's are showing them how to get the most out of it, and of course both sides will spin it to their own agenda

I dont think its a R vs D issue, its more of the people in power using the tools they created themselves...and the sickening thought is we as a nation elected them

All my Exes live in Texas

Originally Posted by lanse brown

A few things that I learned still ring true. "Lanse when you get a gift, say thank you and walk away. When you get a screwing walk away. You are going to get a lot more screwings than gifts"

Both can share the blame equally....it's just like McCain Feingold which was supposed to be campaign finance reform, who does a better job of exploiting the system....in the case of the Patriot Act the R's may have put it into play, but right now the D's are showing them how to get the most out of it, and of course both sides will spin it to their own agenda

I dont think its a R vs D issue, its more of the people in power using the tools they created themselves...and the sickening thought is we as a nation elected them